7 Secrets From Acting and Psychology Every Public Speaker Should Know
- Brainz Magazine
- 3 days ago
- 10 min read
James Westphal is an actor, coach, and creative development specialist with a degree and training from a leading drama school, professional stage and screen experience, and a Master’s in Psychology. His unique combination of acting craft, public speaking, communication techniques, and psychology helps people connect, lead, and speak with impact.
Do you fear public speaking? In almost every job or social setting, you'll be called on to speak, making fear of public speaking remarkably common. In Britain, it's ranked among the top three phobias. But don’t panic, this article will help. By taking some not-so-talked-about tools and techniques from the domains of acting and psychology, you’ll be well-equipped with 7 unique strategies to harness your nerves, move through your fear, and conquer your public speaking struggles.
Public speaking through history
Public speaking has been a constant in human lives for centuries. From stories around campfires as primitive people, to the Greeks’ creation of rhetoric, to the Romans’ compelling public speaking teachings, all the way through to era-defining speeches that have shaped modern history, speaking in public is something we have all experienced, whether first or second-hand, since our beginnings.
The Greeks defined three components of compelling public speaking. Ethos (credibility), Logos (reasoning), and Pathos (emotional appeal). There have been numerous teachings on how to combine these elements with specific techniques for strong delivery and mindset. If so many methods exist, why does fear persist?
Why do we fear public speaking
Public speaking fear, usually considered PSA (public speaking anxiety), is a subtype of communication-based or social anxiety. Usually, this causes physiological arousal in the form of a racing heart, sweaty palms, trembling and/or shaking, and negative self-focused cognition (e.g., “People are going to think I don’t know what I’m talking about!”). Interestingly, this is triggered not only when one is presented with the real scenario, but also by the imagined scenario. In other words, whether it’s real or imagined, it can still elicit these less than favourable responses.
These responses are inherently by-products of our survival mechanism linked to ‘fight, flight, or freeze’, which is our nervous system's response to a perceived or actual threat. For most people, public speaking is that threat. Before we delve into what can be done to alleviate the effects of this response, first of all, it is significant to ask ourselves why public speaking is so often demanded and, when done well, why it is so admired.
Why speaking skills matter
Whether we like it or not, and whether it’s true or not, when we see people speaking who seem confident, calm, and comfortable, we feel held. It makes us relax. When we feel at ease, we are more likely to listen and engage. This lack of resistance means we are also more likely to feel. When we feel, we remember things better. The experience is more salient. So, it stands to reason that we are more drawn to those who can speak in public in a way that signals a calm, collected, and confident persona.
When we add to that someone who can deliver their message from this calm and collected place, in a clear way, with energy and some semblance of charisma, you’re onto a real winner. Good public speakers can lead, inspire change, educate, and unite us. We want to listen and watch people who make us feel these things, to people who provide a good experience. However, this takes work, and it takes practice. It is a skill, and like any skill, it has to be learned and honed. You have to invest time and energy into it.
But how does one do that? Well, it first helps to know a few handy secrets, tips, and tricks to give us a leg up and help decrease fear. There are two domains that we can draw on to enhance our skills in public speaking, acting and psychology.
Psychology’s role in speaking
Psychology is defined as the study of mind, behaviour, and human experience. Therefore, as public speaking requires our minds, is expressed by us, and is something we all experience, it stands to reason that it is inherently psychological.
Acting’s role in speaking
Similarly, acting looks to present us with compelling stories and heightened moments of characters' reality. Art represents life and gives us insight into human experience. Not only reflecting human behaviour for an audience, but also requiring a comprehensive understanding of people’s thoughts, feelings, emotions, and motivations, again, all inherently psychological. There is a necessity when speaking in public to draw on and utilise skills and abilities of performance, presence, storytelling, and oration. Now, it may not be to the same extent or framed within the same process that actors use, but the domains still share similarities.
There are many things we can borrow from psychology and acting, things we have seen in the research, literature, and articles about public speaking for a long time, storytelling, projection, gesture, and the 3 P’s (pitch, pace, and pause). All very helpful and can be found in other Brainz articles. However, here are 7 secrets from these two domains that you might not be so familiar with, to help you enhance your skill and flair in public speaking, encourage empowerment, and enable you to overcome your nerves and fear.
7 secrets
1. Use imagination and visualisation
We are experts at this when we’re children. But society dictates that we leave this well alone once we’re grown up. Actors know this to be one of the great falsehoods of life. The imagination can evoke real feelings. And going one step further, visualising certain situations, contexts, and successes is scientifically supported to prime your brain and body to perform well and to handle situations adeptly if they go awry. We have the power to imagine this and visualise ourselves dealing with situations in the best possible way. Instead of thinking of, imagining, and visualising the worst-case scenario, challenge yourself and visualise yourself doing something well, and imagine people reacting to something well. Maybe even visualising something going wrong, and visualising yourself handling it with ease and flair. This is the process of mental rehearsal. We can harness and develop it, it’s not just for children.
A takeaway tip is to conjure up your inner child and let your imagination empower you to visualize positive outcomes, ideal versions of yourself, and the competent ways in which you deal with things. Prime your mind and body, so when the situation arises, you are ready.
2. Rewrite your inner monologue
When actors start out, they are told that their ‘actor thoughts’ will make up about 80% of their thinking, whilst their ‘character thoughts’ will make up the remaining 20%. Through training, practice, and the ability to create the backstory of their character, actors aim to get to a point where this switches, character thoughts 80% and actor thoughts 20%. With practice, we can learn and retain patterns of cognition and thought. If actors can do it, why can’t we? What we tell ourselves, over time, we believe. If, at the moment, it’s “I’m terrified of public speaking”, try this: borrow from acting and cognitive psychology. Cognitively reframe the situation, like so, “I’ve prepared for this. I know what I’m talking about, and I am passionate about what I can give to people with my pitch, speech, or presentation. Let’s just see what happens”. Keep telling yourself this, and after a while, you will start to rewrite your inner monologue. You will have a different script running in your brain, instead of engraining negative self-talk, practice engraining positive self-talk.
A takeaway tip is to write a list of 10 positive traits and keep it in a drawer by your bed. Read it every night before you go to sleep. Let your mind ruminate on the positive, not the negative.
3. Harness embodied cognition
In psychology, this refers to how our body and physical actions influence our thoughts, feelings, and behaviours. Acting practitioner Michael Chekhov pioneered the idea that actors can physically manipulate themselves to access, retrieve, or muster certain thoughts and feelings. To a degree, this has been studied in social psychology, and while Amy Cuddy’s initial research, claiming that ‘power poses’ can create hormonal changes, has been contested and inconsistently replicated, what has been consistently shown is the positive impact that body positioning can have on improving self-reported feelings of power and self-esteem. What can we take from both of these principles? Well, embody your confident self. Adopt a position that makes you feel powerful and hold it for 2 minutes a day, whilst breathing deeply, and just see how it makes you feel. At first, maybe it makes you feel silly. That’s fine, push through that barrier. Explore your body in a way that frames posture as a tool for confidence. If you don’t feel confident, change your physical stance, presence, and posture, and you may find that the confidence comes from that.
A takeaway tip is not to wait for yourself to feel confident. Manipulate your body into positions that make you feel stronger, and let the feelings of confidence flow from that. Body first, confidence second.
4. Master the power of breath
Not only is breath our life source, it’s also our source of vocal power, energy, and intention. Feel your feet on the floor (or your sit bones in your seat, if you’re sitting), let your knees relax, your stomach release, your shoulders drop, and your jaw unclench. From here, take a nice deep breath into your belly area (your diaphragm) and exhale on a nice sigh. Many of us are afraid to pause when we speak, but by taking a breath, we give ourselves a reason to take a moment, to pause. The irony is that when we do this, people have a chance to catch up with us, to process and lean in, it’s nothing to shy away from. Additionally, the best way to regulate our emotions and our nervous system is first, through our life source, the breath. If you want to try specific breathing exercises to lower stress, calm your nervous system, and ease nerves, try:
Physiological sighs: Sharp and deep inhale through the nose. Once you are almost all the way in, take another snatch breath through the nose and then exhale through tightly pursed lips. For more information, see Stanford neuroscientist Andrew Huberman’s work on breath.
Box breathing: Breathe in for 4 seconds, hold for 4 seconds, and exhale for 4 seconds (or any number that works for you).
Increased exhalation: Breathe in for 4 seconds, hold for 4 seconds, and exhale for 6 seconds (or another number that works for you, just ensuring the exhalation is longer in duration).
A takeaway tip is to use this mental check-in in moments of nerves. Can I feel my feet on the floor? Can my knees, stomach, shoulders, and jaw be released? Can I now take a deep breath into my belly (diaphragm)?
5. Think ‘want, do, feel’
Much like in life, we try to go after what we want. Actors are taught not to play the emotion of a scene. They must let that come as a result of pursuing their objective. Emotions are the byproduct of intentional, connected action. The same can be applied to your public speaking if you want the audience to feel a certain way, great. Start by asking yourself, “What do I want my audience to think/feel?” And then, “What do I need to do to go about doing that?” Maybe you could try saying something a different way, in a different tone? Maybe you need to give a different example, maybe an anecdote? Depending on what you want and what you do, you and, more importantly, the audience, will feel something because your work is coming from an intentional and connected place. Psychologically, when we feel, we are more likely to remember.
A takeaway tip is to always start by asking yourself, “What do I want the audience to think and feel in this particular section of my pitch, speech, presentation, etc? And what can I do to go about making sure that I am eliciting that feeling/thought in an audience?
6. Shift to outward focus
It’s very easy to focus on ourselves in public speaking. What should I do? What will people think of me? What if I do it wrong? When, actually, by doing this, we are neglecting the aspect of public speaking that matters the most. In fact, without it, it wouldn’t be ‘public’ speaking. That’s right, the ‘public’. Whether it’s one person or one hundred, take your focus out onto them. It’s not about you, it's about them. And if that is a daunting prospect, then focus on your message or your main want. Both of these will instantly help much more than just focusing on yourself. Psychologists use a technique called self-distancing, talking or thinking about yourself in the third person, to create some distance. An extreme version of this would be the ‘Batman effect’, creating an alter ego or persona, someone who is the more confident, daring version of you. Famously, Beyoncé and Adele have done this at points in their careers. If it can work for them, it might work for you. Try it.
A takeaway tip is instead of focusing on yourself, remember it is about your audience, the message, and your objective. If you fancy it, create a more confident alter ego, think Beyonce and Sasha Fierce.
7. Leverage the peak-end rule
Finally, it is said that, statistically, we are more likely to remember the peak (the moment when we felt most intensely) and the end of an experience as opposed to the whole thing. What can we take from this for our public speaking? Well, aside from the importance of making people feel something, it’s that if there is a particular message or moment in your speech that you can identify as being the most important, then, next, ask yourself how you can make that a moment people are most likely to feel something. Maybe a personal anecdote, maybe a funny story, maybe a piece of music to accompany, maybe a moment of surprise or reveal, a shocking statistic, an image on screen to emphasise your point, or a high point in your storytelling. Whatever it is, identify it and emphasise it. And, as the rule suggests, make sure your ending is tight, slick, and leaves people feeling energised, satisfied, and impressed.
A takeaway tip is that statistically, according to psychology, we only remember the peak and the end of an experience, so make sure your most important message is wrapped in the peak and ensure you have created a killer ending.
Overcome your fear of public speaking
For some, it’s not just enough to read advice in an article, it has to be practically explored. If you’re looking for a coach to help you practically explore the above tools and even more ways to boost your confidence, overcome your fear, and equip you with delivery skills that will make people want to lean in and listen, please get in touch with me. I offer one-to-one and group coaching in public speaking and communication.
Read more from James Westphal
James Westphal, Actor & Public Speaking/Communication Coach
James Westphal is an actor, coach, and creative development specialist who works with professional actors on their acting and audition technique and provides public speaking and communication coaching for individuals and groups across business, leadership, and public-facing roles. With his first-class degree and training from a leading drama school, ongoing stage and screen work, a Master’s in Psychology, and extensive teaching experience at top drama schools and conservatoires, James also coaches internationally for leading companies. Founder and CEO of James Westphal Creative Development, providing effective help and guidance for people who speak for a living, his mission is to empower people to connect, lead, and speak with impact.
